Title: A Castle Built on Sand : Allusion and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Abstract: Author’s Dedication: To begin on a personal note, I would like to explain how I was first introduced to the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It was by a very serious and dignified Japanese professor of my acquaintance. We share a mutual love of Dickens and Matthew Arnold. I respect his scholarship and erudition immensely, as well as his superb taste in matters literary. Therefore, when he suggested the book, I purchased a copy and read it in short order. I saw him perhaps six weeks later and we shared a wonderful discussion about the many allusions. He confessed that he knew very few of the ones related to popular culture, but adored the process of going online and looking them up. It opened up a world to him of which he was previously largely unaware and, being a person who values knowledge for its own sake, this filled him with joy. For a novel to have an effect like this on a brilliant man who has spent decades consuming the best and brightest that the canon has to offer is a cheering thing. It made me understand that there was something new in this work that bore closer examination. It also helped me overcome my own reflexive shame at recognizing more of the references than might otherwise be socially comfortable in certain circles. Therefore, it is to Professor Eiichi Hara that this paper is respectfully dedicated.
Publication Year: 2015
Publication Date: 2015-03-25
Language: en
Type: article
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